Chapter 4
Rosa Duca knew my father.
Not casually.
Not as a vendor.
Not as a man who delivered bread to warehouses.
She stared at the words scratched into the freezer wall like they had been written in blood.
If I’m gone, find Rosa Duca.
I stepped toward her.
“How did he know you?”
Rosa swallowed.
“Patrick Carter saved my grandson’s life once.”
Lorenzo went still.
“What?”
Rosa looked at him.
“You were nineteen. Your father sent you to inspect the south warehouse after a labor dispute. It was a setup. Patrick pulled you out before the fire reached the loading bay.”
Lorenzo stared at me.
I stared back.
My father had saved him.
And I had never known.
“Why didn’t Dad tell me?”
Rosa’s eyes filled.
“Because Vittorio Duca paid him to stay silent.”
Lorenzo’s face hardened at his father’s name.
Of course.
Everything in that family seemed to lead back to dead men with locked rooms.
Rosa continued.
“Patrick saw something that night. Records. Names. He realized the fire was not meant only for Lorenzo. It was meant to destroy evidence.”
“What evidence?” I asked.
She looked toward the torn file cabinet.
“The same evidence Ethan just stole.”
My knees weakened.
Lorenzo caught me by the elbow.
He released me the second I steadied.
Even in crisis, he remembered.
That nearly broke me.
Tessa stood outside the freezer, still shaking.
“Amelia, there’s more.”
I turned.
She held my father’s old apron.
The pocket had been cut open.
Inside was a small brass key taped to the lining.
“I found it after Ethan left,” she whispered. “He missed it.”
Rosa took one look and crossed herself.
“That opens the chapel crypt.”
I laughed because the alternative was screaming.
“Of course there’s a crypt.”
Marco muttered, “Family tradition.”
Lorenzo looked at him.
“Not helpful.”
We reached the old Duca chapel at 11:41 p.m.
It sat behind the estate, half-hidden by trees, no longer used except for family funerals and sins that needed stained glass.
Rain tapped the roof.
The door was open.
That was never good.
Lorenzo stopped me at the entrance.
“You stay behind me.”
I looked up at him.
“I own a bakery, not a death wish. Fine.”
His mouth twitched.
Even now.
We entered slowly.
Candles burned along the aisle.
At the altar sat the red ledger.
My father’s ledger.
Beside it was a phone playing a live video.
Ethan.
Smiling.
Standing somewhere dark with Bianca Romano tied to a chair behind him.
Her face was bruised.
Her eyes were terrified.
My breath caught.
Lorenzo’s entire body changed.
“Bianca.”
Ethan looked into the camera.
“Hello, Amelia.”
My skin crawled.
“You look thinner,” he said. “Stress suits you.”
Lorenzo stepped closer to the phone.
“Where is she?”
Ethan smiled wider.
“Always straight to business. No wonder women run.”
Bianca shook her head frantically.
Tape covered her mouth.
Ethan lifted the red ledger.
“Patrick Carter was a stupid man. He refused to sell this to the Ducas. Refused to sell it to the Romani. Refused to sell it to anyone.”
I whispered, “You killed him.”
Ethan laughed.
“I didn’t even know your father then. But I admire the work.”
My stomach turned.
“Who did?”
Before Ethan answered, a voice echoed from the back of the chapel.
“Enough.”
I turned.
Dominic Romano walked from the shadows.
Bianca’s father.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Wearing a priest’s black coat without a collar.
Rosa gasped.
“Dominic.”
Lorenzo’s hand moved toward his jacket.
Dominic raised his hands.
“I came to stop him.”
Lorenzo’s voice was ice.
“After two years?”
Dominic flinched.
“My daughter disappeared because I helped your father hide what Patrick found.”
Bianca sobbed on the phone.
Ethan clapped slowly.
“Family reunions are so touching.”
Dominic stepped toward the altar.
“Ethan stole the ledger from your bakery because someone hired him.”
“Who?” I demanded.
Ethan leaned close to the camera.
“Ask the giant why six women left. Ask why every bride was shown just enough truth to run. Ask why Lorenzo never investigated too deeply.”
Lorenzo went pale.
“What does that mean?”
Ethan’s smile sharpened.
“Because every trail leads to Rosa.”
The chapel went silent.
I looked at Rosa.
Her face had collapsed.
“No,” she whispered.
Dominic lowered his head.
“It’s not what you think.”
Lorenzo turned slowly to his grandmother.
“Nonna.”
Rosa’s lips trembled.
“I protected you.”
My chest tightened.
There were those words again.
The favorite prayer of people who destroyed others for love.
Ethan laughed through the phone.
“Midnight, Amelia. Bring the key into the crypt. Come alone, or Bianca stops breathing on camera.”
Lorenzo grabbed the phone.
“I will tear you apart.”
Ethan smiled.
“No, you won’t. That’s what everyone fears, isn’t it?”
Then he looked directly at me.
“But Amelia will come. She always wanted to prove she was brave.”
The screen went black.
I looked at the brass key in my hand.
Then at Lorenzo.
May you like
Then at Rosa, who could not stop crying.
And I realized my father’s death, Lorenzo’s failed brides, Bianca’s disappearance, and my ex-fiancé had all led to the same locked door beneath the chapel.
